AyrTroopMajor

Agreed. Particularly if our playing style is the same as last year where we're flooding forward and susceptible to counter-attacks at the back.

Sunderland. Love them both, but apparently the home kit has been ruined by having an all red back because Adidas think that looks good...

Got ourselves a 7 month old Beagador (Beagle X Labrador). Sniffs everything. Eats everything. He's a good chap.

Short Changed - a book that focuses on the clusterfuck of Sunderland AFC over the past 8 years. Not bad, written by a fan.

Neck and neck with Callum at the top of the Luncheon Premiership. I'm bringing up the rear with a Tesco sandwich and a packet of Squares, nae juice.

Absolute 10/10 luncheon my good man.

Since we're all doing nothing else, what did you have for lunch?

Only if you're one of those oddities that goes to an away game and sits down chief.

This is the same club that were offered Papy Djilibodji from Chelsea for £3m, rejected it, and then signed him the next summer for £9m, so this is well within the realms of possibility tbh.

Thought it may be of interest to you all, I was listening to the Roker Report podcast last night with Sunderland's new owner Stewart Donald as the guest. His takeover of the club from Ellis Short went through yesterday and he was asked by the host if he was aware that Tom Beadling had been allowed to go to Dunfermline with no fee incoming, and SD said that he was aware that they'd lost Beadling and was very annoyed and frustrated that he was away. Seems Beadling was very highly rated at the club and if SD had his way, he'd still be a Sunderland player.

Stewart Donald, former owner of Eastleigh, has completed a £40m takeover of Sunderland. Ellis Short has paid off all remaining debt and is now gone. About f***** time.

never knew that tbh, breaks my heart even more knowing the sfa fucked us over and change all the rules down the line . It was an absolutely disgraceful rule, to be frank. You were fucked over, as were Falkirk whose ground was deemed 'unsuitable', as were Gretna who were made to play in a town absolutely nowhere near Gretna, as were Livi who now have the same issue as you with the 9k empty seats. Think they justified it by trotting out the old 'safety' line, but if Somerset/Brockville/Broomfield were safe to host games in Division One, what exactly made them unsafe for the SPL? Nonsense. It's good that it's been scrapped, but it's too late for some.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Watto

We need 2 new full-backs as well though. On a side-note, commiserations on losing the pod-race to Anakin Skywalker.

Hopefully not and hopefully not.

Brilliant news. Moore's goal return last season, considering he found himself on the bench a fair bit, was fantastic.

Says a lot for Shankland that he's made a decision based purely on football rather than heading for the bright lights and the £ signs. Whit a gem. Love you Lawrence x

F*** it, 500 Fund come at me.

Would he really be that bad? Firstly, he is not Stevie Aitken, which I would, on yesterday's 'performance', class as a positive. He's also been responsible for some of the best moments of my life as an Ayr fan. Two promotions, multiple Premiership scalps and a National Cup Semi-Final, albeit he personally shat the bed when we got there. The fact remains that he has twice taken a part-time side back up to the Championship, and on one of those occasions achieved an unbeaten home record for the season.

Felt for you lot yesterday, firstly due to being the latest to fall foul of Alloa's 'b*****d' streak, which they have unleashed on both ourselves and Raith in the last few weeks. They seem to love rustling teams, and scoring a 93rd minute goal just epitomises that. Mainly feel for you having to sit through 120 minutes (210 if you happened to go to the away leg) of utterly shambolic tactics where it seemed like an attack v defence training drill for much of the second half. I understand that you had a precarious lead and I suppose SA decided to try and hang onto that, but ultimately he got it all wrong. Must have been absolutely brutal to watch as a DFC fan watching wave after wave of Alloa attacks knowing that, if one of them happened to result in a goal, you were f****d. Not going to try and paint a rosy picture of relegation here, and when Ayr were sent packing this time last year, I was gutted, but there really is nothing like watching your team win games, regardless of what level it's at. What you have had at DFC in the last few years is nothing short of miraculous, but maybe it's time for you to go down, re-group and have the chance to experience a different kind of season, where success means more than just avoiding relegation.

To me, all that article states is the absolute obvious. Of course Shankland will want to play at the top level again, and of course he'll see what options he has in the summer before making a decision. This article could be written about any out of contract player on the planet.

Aye. Dreadful surface, particularly when dry.

Would pay good money for the patch of grass that Woois (Hope you all see what I did there) Vaughan was standing on when he hit the post.

To be fair they've actually taken it with a lot more grace than I'd have liked them to, they have pretty much to a man accepted that we deserved the title. Hard to wind up people who are agreeing with everything you say!